A shocking series of events that forever changed the financial markets.

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The events that broke Wall Street

Traders at the New York Stock Exchange closely monitor stocks on Oct. 3, when Congress passed the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

A year ago, the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a series of stunning events from which Wall Street is still recovering.

Seemingly every day for about month, a different legendary financial company teetered on collapse. Stocks recorded some of their most dramatic drops in history, including the Dow's epic 778-point drop on Sept. 29 -- the biggest ever single-day slide. And lawmakers worked overtime in an effort to stem off a failure of the financial system.

The solution: a series of unprecedented and expensive bailouts to save systemically significant institutions from failing and to loosen the tight grip on credit.